Medical Mysteries: Madness, Magic, Malevolent Doctors in Contemporary Thai Horror Film

Abstract

For some inexplicable reason, contemporary Thai horror fi lms seem to be obsessively featuring members of medical profession as central fi gures of evil, capable of committing unspeakable crimes and not even once presenting them in a more positive light. By doing so, the fi lms in question upset the typical horror balance of good doctors vs. mad/evil doctors and make one wonder about the possible rationale behind such negative representation of the profession. This article argues that the negative portrayal of medical professionals in contemporary Thai horror is to a certain extent reminiscent of the tensions between the offi cial and popular attitudes to Western bio-medicine and Traditional Thai Medicine (TTM) in Thai society. The article will also discuss the possibility that medical doctors, together with other members of the professional community, such as for instance architects, or journalists, represent a relatively high level in the Thai social hierarchy which can be openly criticized without much fear that the fi lms will be cut by censors. Last but not least, the article will look in more detail on Paween Purijitpanya’s debut feature The Body #19 (2006). Set within the less-than-glamorous world of medical professionals, the fi lm toys with the concept of the mental disease (schizophrenia), which in traditional Thai folk medicine has consequently been attributed to spiritual possession. This dual spiritual/medical nature of the mental disease in Thai popular perception, has allowed the fi lmmakers to create a fi lm that can be seen as simultaneously repeating and breaking the established Thai horror formulas. At the same time, while directing our attention to the notion of disease, the fi lm offers an interesting, though subtle (= strict censorship) representation of the disintegration of the traditional hierarchical Thai society and its values.